Second Chances [Sweet Pea x OC]

Chapter 30

I bit my tongue as I took a seat next to Archie, stopping myself from saying anything about the portrait hanging on the wall. Having a big ego must run in the family, since Veronica had a painting of herself hanging in the speakeasy and Hiram had his own portrait hanging right behind him. Did Hermione have one of herself too?

"You must be Abigail, or do you prefer your Serpent name of Babygirl?" Hiram asked, breaking me out of my thoughts. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

"Brave of you to assume there's any pleasure in this meeting," I said, not answering his question.

Hiram studied me for a moment before looking to the seat next to me. "Archie. Long time. How have you been?"

"I was doing pretty good, Mr Lodge," Archie replied. "Until a homeless kid stabbed me in my house."

"Did this person break in?" Hiram asked, seemingly unconcerned.

"No, but he did have one of these," I answered, holding up the Quest card. "You recognize it?"

"I, um..." Hiram stuttered.

Archie leaned forward in his seat, staring at Hiram intently. "You started that quest, 'Kill the Red Paladin,' with Warden Norton. And Tall Boy, when he was working for you, referred to me as the Red Paladin."

"Even if he did, Archie, it's all in the past. We have a truce, you and I," Hiram replied. I made note of that, wondering what exactly this truce entailed and why Archie had failed to mention it earlier.

"Mr Lodge, did you give a Quest card to Warden Norton? Archie asked.

Hiram nodded slowly, leaning back in his seat. "Yes."

"Did you give out any others?" Archie pushed.

"Of course he did, Andrews. That's Basic Strategy 101" I snapped. "The real question is how many were given out and who did they go to?"

Hiram's gaze returned to me as he answered. "I...I printed out an even dozen of those Quest cards. I gave three to Norton and nine to Tall Boy to distribute amongst the more...fanatical players."

"Well, truce or no truce, the clock you wound up is still running, Mr Lodge," Archie said after a moment. "There's other players out there biding their time, waiting to kill me that I now need to track down."

"Right," Hiram said thoughtfully, picking up his pen. "I might be able to help you with that. While I briefly distributed Fizzle Rocks, my soldiers like Tall Boy would make drop-offs and pick-ups to various hot spots around town."

"Hot spots?" Archie echoed in confusion.

"A well-known place to score certain items," I explained. "In this case, Fizzle Rocks."

Hiram paused writing to glance up at me. "Not exactly how I would have phrased it, but yes. Here's a list of the locations. The players you're looking for should be there."

Archie took the paper from Hiram as I stood. "If that's all you have for us, then let's go, Archie." He followed me out slowly, most likely hoping to run into Veronica. Fortunately, she was nowhere to be seen which allowed us to meet up with Jughead and Betty down in the bunker.

As he climbed down the ladder first, I took the chance to take a quick picture of the list Hiram had given us. Just like the list of names and Places Landon and Colton had provided, this could come in handy. While Archie told the others about our conversation with Hiram, I pulled out my phone, scrolling through the lists, looking for any overlapping places. It was nice having a clear, unbroken screen again.

"And you believe Hiram?" Jughead asked when Archie was done.

"I do," Archie said. "He says he gave out twelve Quest cards."